E-Cigarettes To Be Banned In Areas of Sonoma County

The unincorporated areas of Sonoma County will soon be included in a growing list of places where vaping is banned in some public areas and establishments.

The county’s Board of Supervisors Tuesday passed on first reading an amendment of an existing ordinance that prohibits smoking tobacco and the presence of second hand smoke in some public areas.

The amendment adds electronic cigarettes to the ordinance. A second reading and vote is scheduled for June 24.

The amended ordinance contends the exhaled vapors contain chemicals and carcinogens and that the flavorful E-Liquid in the devices induce non-tobacco smoking youth to become addicted to nicotine.

“This is such a sales job by the tobacco industry. It’s SAD, seduction, addiction and deception,” Supervisor Shirlee Zane said.

Since the county passed the smoking ordinance in 2011, there has been market growth and a proliferation of e-cigs among youth, strong advertisement and media presence and more calls to County  Tobacco, Vaughn said.

Twenty-eight states, including California, have banned the sales of e-cigs to minors, three states have banned e-cigs in work places, bars and restaurants, and Sebastopol and Petaluma have included e-cigs in their bans on smoking in public, Vaughn said.

The county’s amended ordinance bans e-cigs in areas where smoking already is banned, including dining areas, recreational areas, public events, service areas and in areas within a reasonable distance from any place where smoking is already prohibited.

Smoking is allowed in designated smoking areas in recreational areas and at public events.

Erick Beall, manager of Digital Cigzz in Santa Rosa, said the supervisors were “acting on a lot of unfounded and un-factual information.”

Beall said 60 to 70 percent of Digital Ciggz’s customers use e-cigs to help them quit smoking, and all his customers are adults.

“I am surrounded by the happiest customers who are part of the 20 million people who fought and won quitting the hardest addiction,” Beall said.

“If they look under 30, we card them. If they don’t have an ID they can’t set a foot in our establishment,” Beall said regarding claims that e-cig businesses and advertising are targeting youth.

He said vaping is an adult activity and is a successful method of quitting tobacco smoking.

“We’re not trying to get youth hooked,” he said.

According to Beall, there is no scientific evidence any of the exhaled vapor of e-cigs are harmful to people standing nearby.

The amended ordinance will not affect Digital Cigzz’s business at its two Santa Rosa locations, Beall said.

“We tell our customers to treat e-cigs as you treat cigarettes. Don’t smoke by people in public,” Beall said.